1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to seats for commercial cars, such as van-type motor vehicles, and more particularly, to seat assemblies of a type which is equipped with both a seat slide mechanism by which the seat proper can slide between front and rear given latched positions and a seat cushion folding mechanism by which the seat cushion can pivot between horizontal and upright latched positions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In van-type motor vehicles or the like, slidable and foldable seats are widely used as a rear seat. In fact, when the associated vehicle is intended to be used as a luggage carrying car, the seat cushion is folded up and then the seat assembly is slided forward to a front latched position. With this, a luggage carrying space defined at a rear space of the vehicle cabin is increased. While, when the vehicle is intended to be used as just a passenger car, the seat assembly is moved rearward to a rear latched position and then the seat cushion is pushed down to assume a horizontal position.
One of the conventional seat assemblies of such type comprises generally two lower rails secured to a vehicle floor, two upper rails slidably engaged with the lower rails and mounting thereon a seat proper, a seat cushion latching mechanism for latching the seat cushion at both the horizontal and folded up positions, a seat slide latching mechanism for achieving a latched engagement between the upper and lower rails at a given position of the upper rails relative to the lower rails and a latch cancelling mechanism for cancelling the latched engagement between the upper and lower rails.
However, due to its inherent construction, the seat assembly of this type has the following drawback.
That is, when the latch cancelling mechanism is incidentally touched or actuated by a person who is manipulating the seat cushion latching mechanism for folding the seat cushion, unexpected sliding of the seat assembly tends to occur. This is dangerous or at least uncomfortable.